


Constant Companion

by adamgurri



Category: Original Work
Genre: Action, Science Fiction, Vampires, inspired by Parasyte, scifi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-06
Updated: 2015-04-06
Packaged: 2018-03-21 11:35:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3690762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adamgurri/pseuds/adamgurri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A late night out with an old friend put Sandy in the middle of something that changed her life. One minute the biggest worry she had was commuting on crowded trains, the next she was on the run from a bunch of smart, well-connected, and super-strong blood-suckers that looks like regular folks most of the time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Constant Companion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Door](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Door/gifts).



Sandy was dying. She was sure of it. She had never felt so wretched, not even that one time in college she got food poisoning and spent the whole week sitting on the toilet and holding a bucket. She had cried her eyes out and been terrified that she was going to get too dehydrated, but now she wished she felt as good as that.

How she had even made it up to her apartment from the street, she wasn't sure. The moment the door closed behind her, she had felt the last of her strength drain from her, leaving her in her present pitiable state writhing on the floor.

Her body felt as though it was on fire and like it was tearing itself apart, by turns. She was dimly aware of her sweat dripping from her head to the floor. What could have been either hours or moments later, she was even more vaguely aware of the sound of her phone vibrating. But she could not remember where it was, and it did not really occur to her that she was supposed to find and answer it.

After an unquantifiable period of writhing, sweating, crying, sweating, and snotting all over her floor, she woke up. she did not remember falling asleep or even feeling tired. the pain was gone in all but memory, and for a moment she wondered if she had dreamed te whole thing. But a disgusting sticky spot on the floor suggested otherwise. She stood up with the intention of getting some wet paper towels to clean up the mess, but the sound of her phone vibrating stopped her. She looked at the clock on her microwave and cursed; she had slept half the day away. It would probably be someone from work calling her.

She fished her phone out from her purse, which she had dropped by the door. Sure enough, it was her coworker Melanie calling.

"Are you OK? We’ve been emailing and calling you all morning." Melanie said when she answered.

"I'm really sorry," Sandy replied guiltily, "I don't know what happened to me last night. I've never felt that sick in my life. I didn't even realize how late it was when I woke up."

"I'll let everyone know you're too sick to come in. I'm just glad you weren't caught in the fire last night."

"There was a fire?"

"You didn't see it? It happened right by where you and Dan were meeting up."

"Maybe I did...I don't know, I was so sick by the end last night I couldn't even tell you much of what happened."

"You should definitely get some rest, then."

"Let everyone know I'm sorry I disappeared like that."

"They know it's not your style. they'll just be happy to hear you didn't die in a fire."

"How sweet."

"Feel better."

"See you tomorrow, hopefully."

Work taken care of, she quickly cleaned up the mess she had made overnight. Weirdly, she felt perfectly fine. She might have chalked it up to something she had eaten last night, but she hadn't felt nauseous at the time---juat terrible in every other possible way.

She was immensely famished. She felt a strong contempt for the salad that had been her dinner, which was strange. She liked salads just fine, and this contempt had an odd quality to it; though she felt it, it seemed like something outside of herself, like something she was observing rather than truly feeling.

One thing she was legitimately feeling was a powerful craving for meat. This happened to her every so often. She wasn't exactly a vegetarian, but she also wasn't comfortable with factory farming and was usually content to avoid meat when she could. Still, sometimes she would smell a burger cooking on a grill and feel tempted. Every so often she would give in.

But it was odd to feel that craving, and so strongly, when there wasn't any meat around to cause it. She tried to put it out of her mind, making her way to her fridge to see what she could cobble together. Unfortunately, she found it and her pantry to be pathetically bare. She hadn't gone on a proper grocery shopping trip in weeks. With three grocery stores in as many blocks from her apartment, and plenty of online delivery options, she really had no excuse. But it had been an unusually busy month at work, and the mental exertion of putting together a list always seemed like too much when all she wanted was to indulge in the comforts of her home. And in New York it was all too easy to spend more money in the place of a bit of extra effort.

To that end, she sat on her sofa and picked up her wireless keyboard and mouse. The 55 inch flat screen TV that she had connected to her home made PC lit up. She logged in and, to her dismay, saw that Seamless was already open in one of her browser tabs. She was really getting bad about this. But, now was not the time to worry about building better habits! 

She felt very much like someone was judging her, sneering even, but she was the only one there. After agonizing between what she wanted to order and what she felt she should order, the former won the day. One absurdly oversized burger, coming right up! She felt a strange, detached smugness that she couldn't explain the reason for.

She had recently found a massive torrent with every movie that had come out between 1920 and 1940. She was very slowly working her way through it, and this seemed like as good a day as any to chip away a bit more. 

After what felt like an eternity, her food arrived. she eagerly opened the bag, and found that there were actually two burgers. Puzzled, she looked at the receipt, which confirmed that two burgers had in fact been paid for. That feeling of detached emotion came again, this time of amusement. She was confused, but was too hungry to linger on it for long.

She plopped down on her sofa and started in on her burger, half-watching the movie she had on. She had ordered from this place before, but the burger seemed particularly delicious. "I guess hunger really is the best spice," she commented to herself before taking another big bite.

After the movie, she went to put the second burger in the fridge---only to realize that she had eaten it too, without even noticing.  
"What the hell," she murmured. She’d never done something quite so absentminded. What’s more, she didn't feel as though she has just eaten over a pound of meat. In fact, she felt like she could even eat a little more, but she put that thought right out of her mind. Bad enough to get as sick as she had been, without making herself sick the very next day by overeating.

She knew she should probably rest, but she didn't feel tired at all. In fact, she felt antsy. She decided that some fresh air might do her some good. She put on her jacket and went out to Riverside Park, only a couple of blocks away from her building.

Once in the park, she walked to the side facing the Hudson and sat down on a bench. The weather was perfect; a beautiful autumn day in the city. She felt calmer for it, and the strange external emotions she had been experiencing seemed to quiet down.

After twenty minutes of blissfully clearing her mind, she was hit by the distinct impression that someone was near her. In a popular park even in the middle of a week day, this wouldn't have been so peculiar in itself, but it was more than a general sense that people were around. She felt that a specific individual was there, and getting closer. She tried to ignore it, chalking it up to her imagination. But then, she as she felt the person was right behind her, a hand touched her shoulder. She jumped up in surprise and turned.

A short, stout, balding man with thick glass stared up at her. They considered each other in silence for a moment. That strange feeling she had definitely emanated from this man.

"Nisroch?" He asked in a low voice, "That is you, isn't it?"

"Uuuuh...I think you've got the wrong person," she replied, inching to her left to put distance between them.

"I can tell you're one of us, there's no use in playing any games," the man said, "I would have thought you'd be Nisroch; we've been looking for him since yesterday and suspect he had to take a new host."

"I don't know what you're talk about," she said, increasingly certain that she was dealing with a crazy person.

"Are you so young that you haven't yet encountered anyone outside of your family?" He said, his tone implying she was behaving foolishly, "I can feel you, and I know you can feel me. Stop behaving like a child."

Rather than answering him, she started to walk away. But his hand darted out before she could react, and he grabbed her left arm tightly.

"Let me go!" She shouted, and he struck her hard.

"Shut up, you idiot child," he hissed, "you'll draw attention. I don't know what your problem is, but we need all the manpower we can get searching for our missing kin."

Tears welled up in her eyes, but she tugged on her arm. He seemed surprised by her strength, sliding on his feet. He moved to strike her again, but this time she struck first, hitting him with her closed right fist right on the side of his head. To her horror, his neck snapped at at angle, and he let her go. She screamed.

"Oh God, oh God, are you Ok, please say you're OK," she said over and over, walking over to take a look. Lying on the ground, he looked up at her. 

"I don't understand," he said, calmly, "the only one who could be this much stronger than me is Nisroch." He then reached up and snapped his head back in place.

Without hesitating, Sandy turned and ran as fast as she could.


End file.
